SF reaches deal with 1 of its bigger unions

Updated 6:59 am, Thursday, May 1, 2014

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee's administration on Wednesday reached a tentative contract agreement that includes substantial raises with the first public employee union out of 27 whose contracts are up for renewal, potentially laying the parameters for deals on the remainder.

The agreement calls for members of the Professional and Technical Engineers, IFPTE Local 21 to get raises of at least 8.5 percent combined over the three-year term of the contract, which must still be ratified by its members.

"The raises are less than we wanted and more than the city wanted to give," Local 21 Executive Director Bob Muscat said of the deal struck after six days of formal arbitration.

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Local 21 members, who include city planners, contract compliance officers and health educators, will get a 3 percent raise in October, followed by a 3.25 percent raise a year later. In the third year of the contract they will get a raise of at least 2.25 percent and no more than 3.25 percent, depending on the inflation rate. The total value of the raises over three years will range from 8.5 to 9.5 percent.

Five secondary issues were left for the arbitrator to decide, union officials said.

It was not immediately clear just how much the deal would impact the city's budget, which is $7.9 billion this year. Salaries account for almost half of it.